One of the coolest places I have ever been. The rooms are beautifully furnished, with incredible color, very confortable. The food, the Best!!!!!

My husband and I recently stayed unexpectedly at the Montebello Inn when we could not find hotel accomodations for Iowa State University's Parents Weekend this past September. What a wonderful discovery! We were greeted by our hosts on arrival from a long plane flight from New Jersey with fresh brewed coffee. Our room had wonderful views of the Iowa prairie and was decorated with Mexican artifacts. Each morning we were pleasantly surprised with a wonderful home cooked breakfast. The location was perfect and we could walk to the football stadium thereby saving the cost of parking and avoiding the long traffic lines. We will definitely return to the Montebello next year for ISU Parent's Weekend!!!

I was absolutely delighted that my family chose to have my nephew's wedding at Montebello this past weekend. His wedding was on the terrace by the garden's that are outside the kitchen. It was amazing - the flowers of the garden actually matched the colors of the wedding! A coincidence, but quite lovely.

My favorite picture from the wedding shows the bride holding her two young children against the bright gold of the field. Or it might be a toss-up — there is a really sweet shot of the bride and groom in front of the pond and trees at the other end of the property. Smooth waters always makes things seem serene. It was so much fun watching the little kids chase the butterflies.

Indoors was cool and calm compared to the chaos of the wedding in the Indian Summer outdoors, and the cheerful colors and bright decor contributed to happy day. All smiles everywhere I looked.

It was really helpful to setting up the wedding having easy access to electrical power all around the outdoors. The tile floors made it less worrisome that the littles had full cans of soda. The hardwood tables and chairs were just beautiful. The large refrigerators were wonderful for keeping the wedding cake from melting in the heat. Everything gleamed it was so clean.

The family took three rooms for the night. My son and I had one. The decor fit the Mexican theme of entire building, including authentic sculptures and artwork from the region and books to inform about the culture. The DirectTV is a godsend for my son, and the wireless connectivity blew my mind — faster than the wired connection I have at work! I love the emphasis on hypoallergenic supplies for the bathroom since my allergies give me trouble in many hotels.

I think my eyes almost popped out of my head the next morning when the deer and pheasant wandered by, and I was thrilled when I walked by the pond and all the little frogs chirped alarms and dived in. The Mexican breakfast was divine — huevos con chorizo, melt in your mouth refried beans, quesadillas, fresh salsa with ingredients from the garden, and the muskmelon still warm from the garden bursting with flavor. Mmmmm.

All in all it was a wonderful experience.

I attended a wedding at MonteBello June 6th. Upon arriving I ran into the Mother of the Bride in the driveway. She informed me that the owner was parking cars and had concerns about having to do this, that it was not his job to park cars but he was concerned about how people were parking them. The mother was worried about what to do since the owner was upset. I told her not to worry and that she had more important things to do for her daughters wedding than park cars. So, my husband and I offered to take care of the parking problem for the owner. This was my first of many frustrating observances on how this business was ran.

Second, I was very surprised by the pond and flower gardens were overgrown with weeds, making it probably not the best background for wedding pictures that the Bride & Groom were expecting. Clearly, the owners do not have the time to keep up the gardening of this place. They also had only one bathroom to be used by the guests. They owners stated if they had known how many people would be there, they would have suggested the Bride order a porta potty. A porta potty, now that would have been real classy. Didn't the owners ask how many people would be attending the wedding? This was just another example of their lack of business sense.

Thirdly, the end of the evening was ruined by the owners who decide to end the wedding early because they stated the contract said it was supposed to end at 11pm, but they could not produce a contract and the Bride did not happen to stuff hers in her wedding gown since she believed her copy wouldn't be necessary. You would think the owners could produce their copy, since it was their business. In the end, even they could not discuss the problems with wedding party, because they found it too upsetting (How do they think the Bride and Groom felt). They called upon a friend (and not a very nice friend) to be their spokesperson because they could not handle the discussions.

The owners also were concerned about the music being too loud for the neighbors. Well if you are going to advertise that you can handle a wedding, then you need to expect there will be music. It sounds like these business owners are more concerned with making a buck than with providing good customer service and handling the business. I'm guessing it's time to get out if it's too much for them.

I will admit the house inside looked very nice, but overall the experience became a real downer for the Bride, her Groom and everyone else. From what I saw, this business could possibly handle a very small party, but not a wedding, even though they advertise they can handle weddings. They better review their business plan and just stick with the Bed and Breakfast aspect of the business. You'll want to make sure you have enough granola bars to feed your family breakfast if you stay there, as having enough food to feed the guests seemed to also be a problem. This place is very hands off in terms of assistance, so it you decide to use them, be prepared to DO EVERYTHING YOURSELF and be prepared to listen to the owners COMPLAIN ALL NIGHT (unless they send their not very nice friend to complain instead).

It was definitely an experience and one I shall not soon forget!!!